This is what we love about Indy cars through the generations: They are works of art on wheels, they are the fastest closed-course automobiles on the planet, and they provide wheel-to-wheel racing that takes your breath away and leaves you exhilarated walking to your car. What's more, they all do not look the same.

The Indy Racing League is the keeper of the flame these days, making the rules and running the races. They've done a good job of keeping the racing close and capping terminal velocity at 235 mph at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's where it needs to be. We used to wonder where the limit of the human body was to safely race Indy cars. We found out in 2001 at the CART event in Texas when drivers came out of their cars too dizzy to continue after running 20 laps in practice. They were lapping in the mid-230s on a 1.5-mile track. The race had to be cancelled. Yes, those were turbocharged Champ Cars and Texas has high banks, but this is especially significant because it marked the end the end of the 100-year quest for greater speeds at the top level of open-wheel racing in the U.S.

The IRL must have sensed that day in Texas was coming. With the introduction of its new car and normally aspirated engine in 1997, the IRL had already taken away horsepower and maintained high downforce to keep average speeds beneath 230 mph on all the tracks in its then all-oval series.

Innovation was a victim of controlled speeds and controlled costs, and the loss of diversity followed. Chassis and engine manufacturers dropped out and today's IRL Izod IndyCar Series is a single formula Dallara-Honda. And with it, some of the glamour and verve of the sport was lost too, stunting its growth coming back from the long IRL-CART war.

This version of the Dallara was introduced in 2003 and, with time, it's somehow gotten uglier, a beast. The IndyCar Series is in desperate need of a new car that can recapture the public's imagination, sleek, beautiful and sexy. Some diversity would be nice, too. The IRL hopes to achieve all of that with its next generation car scheduled to make its debut in 2010.

With the new car comes a new engine package. "It will probably be a 2.3-liter twin-turbo configuration," IRL Senior Technical Director Les Mactaggert explains. "It could be a V-6 or an inline-4. We're trying to eliminate the perennial problem of too much power on ovals and not enough on street courses. We want 500 horsepower on ovals and that allows us to eliminate the fixed wings (which have been used at all tracks, except Indy) since 1997). This gives teams all the angles and provides the teams an opportunity to make more mistakes. It mixes up the field.

"It gives the teams more choices how to run the car. Downsizing the engine and running the turbo allows us to turn the power down on ovals and up on road courses. With the downforce and drag we'll have on the car, we can race on any track in the world."

Turbocharging also lowers the profile by removing the air intake needed for the normally aspirated engine. It was the first step in restoring the image of the modern Indy car, but don't expect it to look like a 1992 Lola or a 1995 Reynard.

The 2012 Indy car will be lighter and, probably, longer. "We've got to make the car comfortable for Graham Rahal (6 ft. 2 in.) and Justin Wilson (6 ft. 3 in), make it more adjustable for people who are taller," McTaggart says.

McTaggart says the plan is to reduce the track width from 78 to 74 inches and protect against wheel-to-wheel contact by extending the sidepods.

"We want to address the interlocking wheels," McTaggart explains. "All the sidepods are level so the car doesn't look too fat. All the concepts we've received have the sidepods level with the wheels."

The IRL sent out chassis guidelines in February, calling for a raceable car less effected by turbulence. Moreover, it would have high safety standards,be built in the U.S., have less mass, be more aerodynamic and have technology relevant to the consumer car industry, a modern look and a green initiative. The league has been in consultation with chassis manufacturers in the past year and has received proposals from five manufacturers.

Three are well known and established: Dallara, Lola and Swift, all with Indy car victories. BAT Engineering was a surprise entrant in the derby, a new company formed by veteran designers Bruce Ashmore and Alan Mertens and veteran engineer Tim Wardrop. The Delta Wing group, a consortium of team owners and investors including Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi, also unveiled its own wild concept.

The various concepts are regarded as somewhere between evolutionary and revolutionary. On paper, they are exciting with a fresh look, designs that Indy car fans, sponsors and participants could rally behind. All the manufacturers said their cars would deliver within the IRL's guidelines.

Delta Wing's concept was a complete departure from any previous Indy car. It has a 24-in. front track and a 70-in. rear, and is projected to weigh only 1030 lb. The current Indy car weighs 1565. Visually, the long front looks like a land speed car's, the rear like a fighter jet's. Ben Bowlby, Delta Wing's chief designer (and a former chief designer at Lola, as well), says the car will run faster at Indianapolis and Long Beach with a 300-bhp inline-4 engine.

"We didn't constrain ourselves with the recent past," Bowlby says. "We have saved a lot of weight and we can use less power to achieve the same speeds."

Bowlby and Delta Wing are pushing for more than one chassis manufacturer competing in 2012, but it doesn't want to be one. "It is about creating a platform that moves racing into the new era of information entertainment," Bowlby explains. "It's about opening this whole thing up so we have a sustainable future. We want to open this up to multiple suppliers. It`s a shift in paradigm."

The IRL has taken notice of Delta Wing. "It follows a certain form," McTaggart says. Delta Wing is quite stimulating."

The IRL had intended to select only one chassis manufacturer, but President of Competition Brian Barnhart has said two might be considered if costs can be contained.

Even if one chassis becomes the choice, McTaggart says it could have a different look through the adoption of multiple wing packages.

"We're probably going that way," McTaggart said. "We're looking at all the opportunities out there and it's a choice of what works. We'd have the best of both worlds."

Honda is expected to remain the sole engine supplier. The IRL wanted to have at least one more, but the difficult state of the global economy forced several manufacturers to stop considering the IndyCar Series.

The IRL expects to announce its next-generation chassis manufacturer in June. One would be a giant leap forward, two would be a seismic shift for IndyCar's future.